[past] vector synthesis and sound design in vcv rack

june 2024

led by andrei jay

This workshop covers the fundamentals of sound synthesis with an emphasis on understanding how most any synthesized sounds imaginable can be created out of oscillators, delays, and filters. Folks from any skill level are welcome, this workshop is perfect for anyone interested in electronic music production, avante garde sound artists, sfx & video game sound designers, and folks generally interested in designing synthesis systems of their own.

Topics include

• basic oscillators & wave shapes, frequencies, amplitudes, phase, and noise.
• time domain (oscilloscope) and frequncy domain (spectrogram) visual tools
• amplitude modulation and phase modulation
• wave folding, wave shaping, and distortion
• delay lines and building stereo fx (phase, chorus, flange, reverb, and echo) out of simple delays
• filters, eqs, resonators, vocoders, and filter fm

While this class will be primarily focused on building up examples in VCV rack, we will also take time for theoretical digressions on psychoacoustics, the nitty gritty of what’s going on behind the scenes in analog and digital signal processing chains, physical properties of sound waves, and the numerous hardware limitations and marketing techniques that have informed synthesizer design and synthesis techniques over the years.

Each online only session will be about 90 minutes long. Classes will be recorded and archived, however this is primarily to serve as a reference, not as a replacement for attending the live sessions. All students are expected to have cameras and microphones on and be ready and willing to contribute when class is in session. If you have any questions please contact ex.zee.ex @ gmail.com.

tickets

$175.00Add to cart

August/September SCHEDULE EDIT- move to september

Wednesdays at 9pm EDT (Eastern Daylight US Time)

Weds August 21 9-1030pm EDT

Weds August 28 9-1030pm EDT

Weds Sept 4 9-1030pm EDT

Weds Sept 11 9-1030pm EDT

about the instructor

While I’m primarily known for designing video synthesizers and rambling youtube edutainment videos, I’ve also been a performing and recording musical artist in some shape or form for over 28 years, playing a very wide variety of instruments (synths, guitars, drums, guzheng, mouth harp, etc) and a wide range of genres. In the last 15 years I’ve spent a great deal of time exploring electronic music techniques, working with trackers, sample manipulation, analog and digital hardware synths, supercollider, pure data, max/msp, c++, a ridiculous amount of vsts, and live processing acoustic sounds with digital processing. My desert island synth would be most any Kurzweil K series and below you can find a decent sampling of various albums and live performances I’ve done in recent history. I currently perform live with paloma kop as the A/V duo Reality Orp and record music as XZX. For folks who like credentials, I also have a degree in mathematics from University of Wisconsin Madison.